Building a Nas Server.

[Danielh90]

Hello I have decided to build a nas server to keep all my school/work files. I have decided to run windows server 2012. But I can't decided what type of case  to put the computer in. Does anyone have suggestions of cases? Oh and should I buy a normal motherboard or a server motherboard. 

The Reason I am going to run windows server 2012 is because I like how windows have setup there sharing feature's and for easy to use and  I am a windows guy. 

[jjar35]

Hello I have decided to build a nas server to keep all my school/work files. I have decided to run windows server 2012. But I can't decided what type of case  to put the computer in. Does anyone have suggestions of cases? Oh and should I buy a normal motherboard or a server motherboard. 

I imagine your school and work files dont take up very much space (unless you are a CAD designer, photographer, video producer; even then you could get an 8-bay and have plenty of storage space), I would recommend that you just buy a pre-built one. You can find them from 1 bay to 8 bays, and you can use pretty much any size hard drive in them as well. Here are some recommendations:

 

http://www.amazon.com/QNAP-TS-453-Professional-grade-Transcoding-TS-453-PRO-US/dp/B00MEW1272/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442599662&sr=8-1&keywords=qnap+nas

 

http://www.amazon.com/QNAP-TS-431-Personal-Mobile-Support/dp/B00O3Y7E2G/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1442599662&sr=8-3&keywords=qnap+nas

 

http://www.amazon.com/QNAP-Personal-2-41GHz-Transcoding-TS-451-US/dp/B00KXP9RJC/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1442599662&sr=8-9&keywords=qnap+nas

 

I would imagine that you could save quite a few bucks by buying one of these instead of building your own, it would just be easier as well. They're (most of the time) very easy to setup and configure to your needs/desires.

[Danielh90]

I imagine your school and work files dont take up very much space (unless you are a CAD designer, photographer, video producer), I would recommend that you just buy a pre-built one. You can find them from 1 bay to 8 bays, and you can use pretty much any size hard drive in them as well. Here are some recommendations:

 

http://www.amazon.com/QNAP-TS-453-Professional-grade-Transcoding-TS-453-PRO-US/dp/B00MEW1272/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442599662&sr=8-1&keywords=qnap+nas

 

http://www.amazon.com/QNAP-TS-431-Personal-Mobile-Support/dp/B00O3Y7E2G/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1442599662&sr=8-3&keywords=qnap+nas

 

http://www.amazon.com/QNAP-Personal-2-41GHz-Transcoding-TS-451-US/dp/B00KXP9RJC/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1442599662&sr=8-9&keywords=qnap+nas

 

I would imagine that you could save quite a few bucks by buying one of these instead of building your own, it would just be easier as well. They're (most of the time) very easy to setup and configure to your needs/desires.

Thank you very much. I have bought a premade one but I would like to build a server for fun and the experience. I am looking to go in to IT as my job after college . So I would like to know how to build servers and work with windows servers os .

[jjar35]

Thank you very much. I have bought a premade one but I would like to build a server for fun and the experience. I am looking to go in to IT as my job after college . So I would like to know how to build servers and work with windows servers os .

Ah gotcha, then you building one makes a little more sense. Well now I sit here and wait for someone with server experience to show up and tell you how, then I can see what they suggest.

[Elfuego]

I run a home server with 2K12 and a couple of FreeNAS boxes. I also have a "test" server with Win Server 2016 TP3.

 

Firstly, I havent found a huge benefit to actually getting server grade components unless you want the cores.

 

I have a Xeon X5660*2 Server and aside from 1 use case; it is not any better/worse than my micro test server and nas running an H81 Board, 8GB Ram and A Dual Core Haswell Pentium. Obviously you will sacrifice ECC ram on the consumer grade platforms but honestly with a proper backup strategy I doubt you will have any issues. (Assuming you are running parity raid).

 

Case wise just pick something that has enough space for drives and any other bits you want. (I use my Xeon Server as a transcode box for Streaming video from my FreeNAS Boxes), so I benefit from CUDA. Unless you have a very large budget avoid rackmount stuff; its very expensive for what it offers.

 

Even the dual core box was able to handle transcoding a 1080P stream using plex without any real issues. its only real issues were to do with transcoding a large queue of files to mobile devices (BUT was still good enough for a single or even 2 streams in real time) - Where it was lacking was the few times when I had to get something transcided very quickly while away from home on a poor internet connection.

 

The only thing I would say don't skimp on is a raid controller card.

[Danielh90]

I run a home server with 2K12 and a couple of FreeNAS boxes. I also have a "test" server with Win Server 2016 TP3.

 

Firstly, I havent found a huge benefit to actually getting server grade components unless you want the cores.

 

I have a Xeon X5660*2 Server and aside from 1 use case; it is not any better/worse than my micro test server and nas running an H81 Board, 8GB Ram and A Dual Core Haswell Pentium. Obviously you will sacrifice ECC ram on the consumer grade platforms but honestly with a proper backup strategy I doubt you will have any issues. (Assuming you are running parity raid).

 

Case wise just pick something that has enough space for drives and any other bits you want. (I use my Xeon Server as a transcode box for Streaming video from my FreeNAS Boxes), so I benefit from CUDA. Unless you have a very large budget avoid rackmount stuff; its very expensive for what it offers.

 

Even the dual core box was able to handle transcoding a 1080P stream using plex without any real issues. its only real issues were to do with transcoding a large queue of files to mobile devices (BUT was still good enough for a single or even 2 streams in real time) - Where it was lacking was the few times when I had to get something transcided very quickly while away from home on a poor internet connection.

 

The only thing I would say don't skimp on is a raid controller card.

Thank you  

[scottyseng]

Thank you

 

As stated above, unless you need the core count, the extra features (IPMI), or are that paranoid (aka me), you don't need enterprise class motherboards.

 

I run Windows Server 2012 R2 on my NAS, with a Xeon E5-2695V3 (Complete overkill for a NAS) with ECC RAM, but I have to admit, I probably would've been okay with a Haswell i3 and ECC ram (I changed my mind to turn the NAS into a part time rendering server as well though).

 

Windows Server is very similar to windows, but it takes quite a bit more set up. Nothing is set up for you, you have to set it up. A lot of features you have to enable yourself, such as Internet (It's disabled until you turn enable the internet adapter) or audio (Then again you don't really need audio on a server). Make sure you know that there is a GUI free and a GUI version when you first install Windows Server, pick the GUI version.

 

As for a case, I lucked out and was able to pick up a used Super Micro 24 bay chassis for $199 on ebay that is near my house, but you should avoid rackmount stuff unless you have the need to have that many drives. I would pick out a good case that fits your hard drive needs (Maybe a bit larger for future expansion). Cases are a personal preference thing and we'd have to know how many drives and what components you are getting for the system before picking out case recommendations.

 

Definitely don't cheap out on the RAID card. A decent one with a battery backup unit will run around $600-800. Do not get the cheap RAID cards, regardless of brand. The one I would recommend is the LSI 9360-8i (Make sure you buy the battery backup for it). It is not recommended to run a RAID card without the battery backup for the RAID card (If the power goes out, you lose any data in the RAID card's RAM) if you are in Write Back mode (Writes stored in card's RAM to be written to array later).

 

I would recommend reading about Windows Server first or picking up a book on it. It's definitely not as easy to set up initially as consumer Windows, but it has very little crap on it (Unlike Windows 10 here with the default installed crap apps no one wants..."Groove Music" indeed). That means you have to enable what features you need though, from remote access to Audio (I use my NAS as a workstation when my main PC can't handle the load).

 

Also, get a enterprise antivirus like Symantec Endpoint Protection (Do not install consumer grade antiviruses like Norton on here). You'll have to read on how your particular enterprise antivirus works, as they are definitely not as easy to set up as the consumer version (For Endpoint, you set up most of the features on the website policies rather than on the antivirus itself).

 

As for hard drives, get RAID rated hard drives, like the WD Red, Red Pro, or the enterprise WD line up if you have the cash. HGST NAS drives are pretty good as well.

 

I would recommend a battery back up (UPS) for the server as well, although not required.

 

Ah, if you want to have remote access using Windows Conenctor software and using Microsoft's free remotewebaccess domain name (yourname.remotewebaccess.com), the DNS server eats a lot of RAM (It eats like 1.3GB on my NAS...I don't like having 15% RAM utilization on a 32GB server on idle)

[Elfuego]

As stated above, unless you need the core count, the extra features (IPMI), or are that paranoid (aka me), you don't need enterprise class motherboards.

 

I run Windows Server 2012 R2 on my NAS, with a Xeon E5-2695V3 (Complete overkill for a NAS) with ECC RAM, but I have to admit, I probably would've been okay with a Haswell i3 and ECC ram (I changed my mind to turn the NAS into a part time rendering server as well though).

 

Windows Server is very similar to windows, but it takes quite a bit more set up. Nothing is set up for you, you have to set it up. A lot of features you have to enable yourself, such as Internet (It's disabled until you turn enable the internet adapter) or audio (Then again you don't really need audio on a server). Make sure you know that there is a GUI free and a GUI version when you first install Windows Server, pick the GUI version.

 

As for a case, I lucked out and was able to pick up a used Super Micro 24 bay chassis for $199 on ebay that is near my house, but you should avoid rackmount stuff unless you have the need to have that many drives. I would pick out a good case that fits your hard drive needs (Maybe a bit larger for future expansion). Cases are a personal preference thing and we'd have to know how many drives and what components you are getting for the system before picking out case recommendations.

 

Definitely don't cheap out on the RAID card. A decent one with a battery backup unit will run around $600-800. Do not get the cheap RAID cards, regardless of brand. The one I would recommend is the LSI 9360-8i (Make sure you buy the battery backup for it). It is not recommended to run a RAID card without the battery backup for the RAID card (If the power goes out, you lose any data in the RAID card's RAM) if you are in Write Back mode (Writes stored in card's RAM to be written to array later).

 

I would recommend reading about Windows Server first or picking up a book on it. It's definitely not as easy to set up initially as consumer Windows, but it has very little crap on it (Unlike Windows 10 here with the default installed crap apps no one wants..."Groove Music" indeed). That means you have to enable what features you need though, from remote access to Audio (I use my NAS as a workstation when my main PC can't handle the load).

 

Also, get a enterprise antivirus like Symantec Endpoint Protection (Do not install consumer grade antiviruses like Norton on here). You'll have to read on how your particular enterprise antivirus works, as they are definitely not as easy to set up as the consumer version (For Endpoint, you set up most of the features on the website policies rather than on the antivirus itself).

 

As for hard drives, get RAID rated hard drives, like the WD Red, Red Pro, or the enterprise WD line up if you have the cash. HGST NAS drives are pretty good as well.

 

I would recommend a battery back up (UPS) for the server as well, although not required.

 

Ah, if you want to have remote access using Windows Conenctor software and using Microsoft's free remotewebaccess domain name (yourname.remotewebaccess.com), the DNS server eats a lot of RAM (It eats like 1.3GB on my NAS...I don't like having 15% RAM utilization on a 32GB server on idle)

 

You should not be using connector software ever.

 

I would say HGST Drives, WD Red/Pro and WD Black are pretty safe. You dont really need enterprise grade HDDs - they are not cost efficient (Just Avoid Seagate Drives and WD Greens - Basically any NAS drive thats rated at 3years + warranty should be fine. I actually use consumer HDDs/SSDs in a lot of production servers, because they are significantly more cost efficient - I would rather run a raid 60 of consumer drives than a raid 6 of enterprise drives for example [at the same price point]). I tend to reserve Enterprise drives (SSDs) for stuff that is co-located a much greater distance away (and is therefore a bigger issue to replace/repair).

 

My home NAS/Servers all use Consumer grade SSD boot drives (But I have some pro-sumer work drives) and only my mainPC uses all Prosumer stuff (and two datacenter drives).

 

Windows Server 2016 TP2 was significantly harder to setup (if you are a newbie) than Server 2K12 - My Experience of 2K12 on a Haswell Pentium was pretty much plug and play, then install the features you want.

 

Also if you want to be a sysadmin you will need to install active directory and windows domain stuff (but dont use the dynamic dns - if you really must write a Powershell/VBS for it [Hint Namecheap has dynamic dns and it uses <50mb ram]).

 

Do not use connector software; just setup the Active Directory properly and tunnel in.

 

You may want to invest in a couple of Intel NICs (10GbE or 1Gbit * 4 and NIC Bond).

 

Personally I use 2x 10GbeE Bonded for the Main Server, a Failover of 4*1Gbit and the onboard NIC for management. Each NAS is connected by a 4x 1Gbit NIC and my personal PC runs over a Dual 10GbE + Onboard NIC setup.

 

I am aware its utter overkill; but I was able to get a lot of the network cards very cheap .

 

Also beware 10GbE over copper cables etc (I use 10Gbit over Ethernet and its much easier to work with.)